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America’s best-selling vehicle rolls off the assembly line at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan every 53 seconds. Since its introduction 76 years ago, more than 41 million F-150 trucks have been sold.

“The F-Series has been America’s best-selling truck for 47 consecutive years and America’s best-selling vehicle for 42 consecutive years,” said John Emmert, general manager, Ford North America Trucks.

What makes trucks so popular, generation after generation? Vaux Adams, a city employee in Sterling Heights, Mich., said his father-in-law introduced him to the Ford F-150 and Adams liked the car so much that he just rented a second one.

“I’m going to stick with the truck because I bought a house and I have to move furniture and I have to do yard work, so I need it,” Adams said. “I really like the interior and everything, from the leather to the cloth seats. I have one with a big touch screen, which is great. I’m a tech guy, so that’s great.”

Ford attributes its success to constant innovation.

“We’re always interacting with our customers, whether it’s through market research or going out and observing how they use our vehicles or interacting with them in a number of different ways,” Emmert said. “We used all of this intelligence to develop the F-150 vehicle to meet their needs at every possible moment.”

The first generation of Ford-150 was born in 1948. Kevin Joostema, former president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and executive president of Automotive Inc., said Ford was the first company to design a pickup truck for regular drivers, not just for commercial use. -Ed, a website that helps consumers decide which vehicle best suits their needs.

“A product [Ford] always seemed to incorporate some of their leading technology into the consumer-facing F-Series, even to this day,” said Joostema. “There was a very consumer-centric choice about what they wanted to do with the lineup, to provide passengers with Larger cab, changed styling. “

Joostema said another reason for the F-150’s popularity is that Ford offers a variety of options to meet the needs of individual consumers, including options such as certain types of engines or a larger cab to accommodate more passengers.

“It’s really hard to imagine a scam because it has the broadest base,” he said. “Even truck beds. You might say, ‘Well, I want an 8-foot truck bed with a crew cab, Ford has that. Others [truck makers] No. So because it’s the broadest product base, it’s hard to find what it’s missing. “

At the Dearborn plant, 5,200 employees work in 10-hour shifts building trucks. The final stages of the process include an engine inspection, followed by a body drop, where the truck’s key components are joined together. The process is checked by computers and field workers. During the final assembly process, humans and machines work together to produce a new truck in a minute.

“You need people to build vehicles. … If you look at all the technology that’s coming out, it’s really a collaborative space.” Corey Williams, Ford Dearborn Truck Plant Manager ) said. “Each workstation has its own computer, and it actually helps operators in the virtual workstation ensure quality.”

Williams points to the factors he believes keep customers coming back decade after decade.

“It’s the technology. It’s the interior. When you get inside, it feels like a luxury car,” Williams said. “You forget you’re in a truck.”

At Ford in the nearby suburb of Sterling Heights, F-150s account for about half of the dealer’s business, according to general manager Jim Elder, who drives an F-150 himself.

“It fits my family’s lifestyle. Obviously, I don’t work in construction, but it helps me move my bike,” Elder said. “If I have to pack something for the house or haul something small or large, it meets my daily needs.”

For people concerned about gasoline use, Ford has developed the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning.

Joostema and other reviewers do point out that poor fuel efficiency—limited miles per gallon—is a drawback to owning these trucks. But many Americans don’t seem to mind, considering tens of millions of F-150s have been sold since the 1940s, including 750,789 in the United States in 2023.